Many first-time mothers who go through a tough, prolonged labor say the experience will affect them forever, study suggests.

The study, of 255 Swedish women who had recently given birth, found that one-third of those with a prolonged labor considered the birth a negative experience, compared with just 4 percent of women with a normal labor.

Overall, 60 percent of the women with a difficult delivery said the experience would “mark them for life,” according Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Prolonged labor is common, particularly when a woman is having her first child. The new study included first-time mothers who gave birth at one of three hospitals in northern Sweden over a one-year period.

Prolonged labor was defined as either a slowly progressing labor - having regular contractions for more than 12 hours, for example - or a delivery requiring emergency Cesarean section or assistance from forceps or a vacuum.

The researchers found that pain was the top issue for all of the new mothers, but particularly for those with prolonged labor.

Of the latter group, 62 percent agreed with the statement, “It was so painful that I thought I was going to die.” That compared with 47 percent of women with uncomplicated deliveries.

The findings suggest that more could be done to relieve women’s pain during labor, according to Astrid Nystedt of Umea University, the study’s lead author.

But it’s also important for women to have support from their partners and medical staff, she told Reuters Health, and to be well-informed about labor and delivery ahead of time. Of the women in her team’s study, the large majority said that their “best support” during labor came from their husbands.

Past research has suggested that women with a negative view of their childbirth experience are at increased risk of postpartum depression. Some other studies, though not all, indicate that talking about the experience with a midwife can help reduce the risk of depression, according to Nystedt and her colleagues.

Though many women with prolonged labor in this study thought it would stay with them for life, Nystedt said it’s unclear what, if any, effects this might have on the women’s overall mental well-being.

There is a need, she and her colleagues conclude, for more research on the “difficulties associated with a negative birth experience,” and on ways doctors and midwives can better help women who go through prolonged labor.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Nursing, May 2005.